Water Sprite
by sparky24
Summary: Walter Hill seemed to only notice Emily Potter when she was around water. One-shot, in the same universe as April is the Cruelest Month.


Water Sprite

The first time Walter really noticed Emily Potter he was eight years old. It was at a football match that was rained out. The rain was coming down in buckets and he was huddled under a rain tarp with his best mate. He was watching Emily and her sister running around on the field, getting soaking wet, trying to catch rain drops on her tongue. Soon she had her mother and an Indian woman also running around in the rain. The four of them laughing and giggling like it was the most normal thing in the world. He turned to his mate and said, "Would you look at that? Potter is running around like a nutter. And she's got her sister and her mum and another lady doing it too." His friend shook his head. "Girls, I'll never understand them. They're nutters, the whole lot of them." Walter nodded in agreement at this wisdom as he stood there, entranced by Emily Potter.

The next time he saw Emily Potter, he was eleven years old. Of all the crazy things in the world, he found out he was a wizard. So on August 31 he managed to find Platform 9 ¾ and was amazed by the huge red steam engine and the gleaming train. He didn't notice her then; he was too caught up in the sights and sounds of the whole experience. He didn't see her on the train; he found his own cabin and sat with a group of students like him who were new to this whole magic experience. It was when they were crossing the lake in the boats with gamekeeper. She was dancing again, spinning like a top in her boat with her sister. She fell in the lake of course. Her sister pulled her out, but instead of being upset, Emily was laughing like an imp. Inside the great hall, waiting to be sorted she was shaking like a leaf, drenched to the bone but still smiling and giggling with her sister. She didn't seem too happy when he espied her latter when her Professor father was chewing her out, Walter had a glimpse of that when he was filing out to the Hufflepuff house with the rest of his classmates. He didn't pay much attention to her after that as he had few classes with her and she was in Gryffindor.

He came across her again when he was fifteen. It was early in the morning on a Saturday in June. The weather was just turning warm again and he took the time to go on ramble around the school grounds before the school awakened for the day. He enjoyed his walks as they allowed him time away from the hustle and bustle of the Castle. She was in the lake, skinny dipping. It was rather awkward, as she had left her robes on the shore and he came upon her unexpectedly. He spoke to her for the first time that morning. "Hello, you're Emily Potter aren't you?"

She smiled up at him, "Well maybe. I could be Eleanor Potter. You really couldn't tell unless I told you. Even then you couldn't be sure I wasn't lying. But perhaps you could be a gentleman and turn around. It's getting rather cold in the water and I'm afraid I've stayed too long in the lake."

He frowned, "Why would I turn around, aren't you wearing a bathing suit?"

She blushed and then glared at him. "If I was wearing a bathing suit, would I ask you to turn around?"

He shrugged, "Perhaps, you could be extremely modest. Besides I have never seen a naked girl before, well not up close and personal. And you are in a rather difficult situation."

"Right and I could just tell my father that you were peeping on me and he would hex you until next Thursday."

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

With a sigh, Walter gave in and turned his back to her. He had no desire to be hexed by Professor Potter. He heard her exiting the lake and wished he at least had a mirror to take a peek. He was still a teenage boy. After a few minutes, he asked, "Are you decent yet?"

Her voice from right behind him gave him a start. "Yes, I am. You can turn around now."

He turned and finally saw up close the girl from the lake. She was petite but her body was nicely curved from the swell of her breasts to the curve of her ass, all discernable from the robe which clung to her body. He must have been staring because she soon poked him.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." He said with a grin.

She blushed, "Well you have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

He shrugged, "Fair enough. I'm Walter Hill. We used to play football together when we were younger. I play Quidditch now for Hufflepuff."

She struck a pondering pose. "I don't remember that."

"I was quite a bit smaller back then. You were trying to catch raindrops on your tongue the first time I saw you." He recalled for her.

Surprise lit up her face. "I remember that now. My Auntie Luna told me that if we caught raindrops we would keep away the wrack spurts."

"What's a wrack spurt?"

"Dunno. Auntie Luna never explained."

A strong wind suddenly blew by sending a chill through her body and reminding Walter that she had little on but her robe. "Here take my cloak. It will keep you warm until you get back to your common room." He wrapped his cloak around her thin shoulders.

She smiled up at him. "Thanks. But won't you get a chill?"

He smirked, "If you remember I'm rather well dressed compared to you."

She blushed again. She was quite pretty when she blushed Walter noticed. "Thanks again. Walk me back to the castle?"

"Sure, it's getting late and I'm famished. Breakfast should be served now." Together they headed back to castle. About half way there, Emily slipped her hand into Walter's and grasped it tightly. They reached the main door and entered and were greeted by Emily's twin, Eleanor.

"There you are, Em. Daddy said you would be here. I've been looking all over for you so I went to his quarters to see if you were there already. You weren't but Daddy somehow knew you were here at the main door. Did you forget our morning breakfast with Daddy today?"

Emily's free hand rose to smack her forehead. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot. How long have we got?"

"Fifteen minutes." She told her sister, knowing that they had twenty but wanted to move her sister along as well as get the gossip on the cute boy who standing beside her.

Emily nodded. "Right, better go and get dressed." She turned to Walter and rose on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for being a complete gentleman."

Walter blushed, "It was nothing. See you around?"

"Yeah, you will."Emily replied dreamily. Then she looked up at the clock and back to her waiting sister. "Bye Walter," She called out over her shoulder as she ran off to Gryffindor Tower to dress, still wrapped in Walter's cloak.

He never did hook up with her during that school year. Exams and different schedules seemed to keep them apart. Try as he might, he never did catch her skinny dipping again. However he did get his cloak back. He found it the morning of the last day of school on his bed, cleaned and pressed with a note attached. The note thanked him again for the use of the cloak and invited him to come over for the summer. He wondered how she had gotten his cloak into the Hufflepuff dorms and on his bed. Then he laughed as he thought, Emily Potter is one strange girl.

That summer he saw her at her family home for the very first time. She was dressed in a one-piece bathing suit that was modestly cut, a rather odd sight since the last time he came upon she wasn't wearing anything at all. With her was her sister, Eleanor, an older girl who was probably their sister(he vaguely remembered an older sister those first few years at Hogwarts plus she bore a striking resemblance to Professor Potter) and two younger girls, one about seven the other just a toddler. He had no idea as to the relation of the two younger girls, though the older of the two looked a bit like Eleanor so probably another sister or perhaps a niece. They were, all of them, laughing and giggling and running through a watering sprinkler. Emily noticed him coming down the walkway and sprinted towards him, wrapping him up in a wet hug and standing on the tips of her toes gave him a solid kiss on his lips. Walter was taken by surprise; he wasn't expected to be greeted this way. But being a boy being kissed by an attractive girl was not a bad thing. He took advantage of this to kiss her back. Her lips were soft and warm and inviting. He must have kissed her for a good five minutes before they broke apart to the cat calls of her sisters who were watching the whole scene. They backed away from each other, their faces reddened in embarrassment, now looking at each other shyly. Then Emily grabbed his hand and said "I'm glad you came. I was hoping you got my message but I wasn't sure if you got it. The house elves sometimes like to play tricks on me. But I told them it was really, really important and to make sure that-"

She blushed, "Sorry, I tend to babble when I get excited. I've never kissed a boy before-on the lips that is, 'cause I did kiss you on the cheek and-

He put a finger to her lips, "You're babbling again. So you just decided to kiss me out of the blue."

"Uh huh, you're not mad are you?" She asked hesitantly.

Walter laughed, "How can I be mad? I've wanted to kiss you since that morning I saw you swimming." If truth be told he had wanted to kiss her before then but their paths never crossed.

"I am really, really glad to see that you made it." She repeated.

"Wild horses would have had to drag me away from being here. Now who are all these other girls?"

She blushed and grinned, "Oh, right, you don't know anyone but Ellie. The girl that looks like Daddy is my sister Abby. The little rug rat to my right is my baby sister, Susie. And the youngest is our niece, Kadisha, she's my oldest sister's (whom you'll meet later) daughter."

Walter gulped; the idea of meeting the rest of her family scared him a little. Sure he knew Professor Potter from school, but now he was meeting him as his daughter's boyfriend rather than as a student. The idea of an extended family was new to him too. He was an only child and his family quite insular, ignoring one whole side of the family because of an inconvenience (inconvenient to visit in that they were located in Wales and his parents hated to travel.) Still, he let himself be dragged along to enter her house. He paused just outside the doorway, finally noticing that his new girlfriend had soaked his shirt when she hugged him before. "Wait, Emily. I can't go in there looking like this. I'm all wet."

Emily frowned, "You're a wizard aren't you? Why don't you just dry yourself?"

"And be expelled for doing underage magic? I may be muggleborn but I do know the rules. No magic before age 17." Walter explained. She knew this, she had to know this. Her father's a professor at the school.

"Oh, it's alright here. Daddy has it so the Ministry won't know about that sort of thing. He did it a long time ago when my sister Sarah was very young and started doing complicated magic. When you save the Wizarding World from a dark wizard, they tend to be a bit more lenient with you." Emily explained.

He understood but still had his doubts, Emily noticed, took his wand, did a drying charm on him and then handed him back his wand. "See no notice of underage magic. Now come along, the whole family is dying to meet you." Walter gulped and followed his new girlfriend reluctantly.

Walter somehow survived the day to have a proper date with Miss Emily Potter. He wanted something that reminded him of the first day he saw her. So he packed a picnic lunch and took her on the train to the beach on the Channel. She was delighted with the location and the lunch. They settled in among the crowds on the beach with their picnic basket and blanket to lie out on. They then went to the changing rooms and put on their respective bathing suits.

When she returned to their spot on the beach, Walter noticed that she was wearing a bathing suit that was considerably more revealing than the one she wore at her house the last time he saw her. Walter noticed this and mentioned it to her. She blushed – Walter would never tire of her blush and she explained "Oh, that's because Mum didn't think it was appropriate for clowning around with my younger sister and my baby niece. Though if you asked those two they would have probably been running around naked. Not the best impression for my new boyfriend."

Walter frowned in confusion; he seemed to do that a lot around Emily, and said "You have a strange family."

"You don't know the half of it yet."

After frolicking around in the water for awhile, they settled back down on the beach, slightly breathless. Walter couldn't remember laughing so much in his life. It was if her joy, her love of water infected him too. He took the picnic basket and unpacked their lunch. After lunch, Emily settle back into his arms as relaxed together on the beach in companionable silence. Walter was the first to break the silence, wanting to tell her his feelings for her. "I have a theory-"He started.

She turned slightly and frowned, "Wait, a theory? You're not going to break out into song are you?"

"What? No, why would I break out into song?"Walter asked.

She shook her head, "Doesn't matter, as long as you don't."

Walter nodded, confused again, and continued his thoughts, "I have a theory, that you are a water sprite."

She turned on him surprised, "This isn't a crack on my size is it?"

"No, no, not at all, it's just that every time I see you, water seems to be involved especially the last two times." He explained to her. "So I've come to associate you with water, hence the idea that you are a water sprite."

She seemed to ponder that for a minute as she settled back into his arms. He noticed that she started to worry her bottom lip as if she were nervous about something or maybe something was bothering her. So he asked her what the matter was. She gave a nervous laugh. "You're going to think this is crazy."

He frowned, "Why do you say that?"

"Well," she drawled out, "The time you saw me skinny dipping, I knew you were going to come by. In fact I had been swimming every day the weather permitted that spring because I didn't know exactly what day. But I knew you would come because I dreamed about it. More importantly, my sister Eleanor dreamed it too. We were ten at the time."

Walter was struck dumb. This whole thing had been a set up. She really didn't care about him at all; she was just living out some crazy dream. He moved her off of him, stood up and started to clean up the picnic lunch. Emily watched him, tears falling from her eyes, but no noise came out.

"You think that this is a joke? That I'm just playing with you?" She asked with a touch of anger.

"Yes, yes I do." Walter replied petulantly. "What am I supposed to think? You tell me that you were just waiting for me to come by? How did you know what year I would come if you were ten when you dreamed about me?"

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed, "Well I knew I had to be at least fourteen or fifteen. And yes, I was just waiting for you to come by. I knew it was going to be you after watching you play my sister in Quidditch every year. You resembled the boy in our dreams to a tee. So it was just a matter of waiting."

"How did you know you would be at least fourteen?"

Emily blushed, "Because I was skinny dipping, you idiot! I would think I would know what I would look like when I was 10 and know what I would look like at 14."

Walter blushed but was still unsure. "It all sounds so crazy."

Emily sighed, "That's because my life is crazy. I don't trust you enough to tell you my entire life story but I like you enough to eventually tell you if you stick with me."

Walter shook his head, "I don't know. I need some time to figure this out."

"Don't you like me? Am I not attractive enough?" Emily asked in a whisper, her voice giving out on her.

Walter ran a hand through his hair. "Of course you're attractive enough. I just need time to figure things out." He finished gathering up the picnic stuff and turned back to her, "You better get changed, it's getting dark and I promised to have you home before 9 and the last train leaves in a half hour."

Silently, Emily left him to go to the changing rooms. While waiting for her to change, Walter had time to think about his predicament. He absolutely hated being manipulated. That's what this first appeared to be on the surface: an attempt to manipulate his feelings for Emily. But now that he had time to think about it, only the initial meeting seemed to be planned. The rest of his actions following his coming upon Emily at the lake was entirely his own. He decided to give her his cloak, she didn't ask for it. He decided to take her up on her invitation to her house. He also made the decision to take her to the beach today. And now he made the decision to ruin their first and possibly their only date by overreacting to her revelation. He owed Emily an apology which he would do as soon as she came back from the changing rooms. He checked his watch; she should be coming back about now. He looked towards the changing rooms to see if he could catch a glance of her coming back. She wasn't there. He went back to straightening out the area when suddenly a high pitched screamed pierced the air. It was Emily and she was being carried off by one of the ugliest creatures he had ever seen. It was green with horns and scales and was quite large, at least eight feet tall and must have weighed at least 30 stone. Walter looked down to see if he has anything to throw at it and when he looked up, he could no longer see her until Emily screamed again. Now he saw it again, drew up his courage and charged at the beast. Not the brightest thing he could do but probably the bravest. He managed to knock the beast over due to surprise and a running start (those summer rugby scrums coming in handy right now) forcing the beast to drop Emily. Unfortunately for Walter, the beast decided to take out its frustration of being tackled by pounding on Walter. Walter tried to block the blows with his arms but just made the beast angrier. But before the monster could kill him someone grabbed the monster and threw him off of Walter. He glanced around to try and see who his savior was and was surprised to see Emily's sister, Abby. He was surprised to see her fighting the monster, getting quite a few hits in on the beast. However she was also getting beaten up in return, in fact she received quite a nasty gash across stomach from the monster's claws. But before the monster could take advantage, she jumped on his back, grabbed its head between her hands and twisted it hard. A loud crack sounded and the beast collapsed. Walter hoped it was dead. It was the question he asked her when she dragged herself back to them. "Is it dead?"

Abby nodded, "Quite dead."

Walter noticed that she was bleeding quite heavily and running on complete adrenaline he pulled off his shirt and tore it into a makeshift bandage and wrapped it around her waist gingerly. She hissed when he initially touched the wound with his shirt, but settled down and watched as he bandaged her wound. "Thanks, Emily's boyfriend." She then withdrew a phone, seemingly out of thin air and handed it to her worried looking younger sister.

"Call Dad and tell him where we are and what happened. He'll come around with a port key and take us home." She explained to her sister.

Emily looked confused, "Why not call Mum?"

Abby frowned, "The monster is already dead. She'll just get frantic when she sees me injured. Then she'll comb the whole beach looking for the nest of these things and we'll never get home and you might possibly never go on a date again."

Emily bit her lip nervously and pressed two on the phone, "Hello Daddy, it's me, Emily." She paused for his response then continued, "There's been a bit of an altercation here at the beach. Yes Daddy the same beach Walter took me to. Anyways, Abby and Walter have been hurt and could really use your help." She paused again, and then sighed saying "Thanks, Daddy." She turned off the phone and handed it back to her sister.

Walter watched the whole scene unfold in confusion. None of it made any sense. Why would that creature attack Emily? How could her sister be able to save them both? She was the same size as Emily, though different hair and coloring. Why were they worried about their Mum? Mrs. Potter seemed like a nice enough lady when he met her yesterday but no hint of anything dangerous. Walter ran a hand through his hair and groaned in pain, apparently his ribs were hurt maybe broken. Still he wondered what he was getting into. He thought it was worth going out with Emily 10 minutes ago before she was attacked, but what about now? He would decide that later. For now, it would be especially bad form to break up with a girl providing comfort to you as collapsed into her arms and waited for her father to come.

Thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully considering his current position, Professor Potter appeared on the scene moments later. Walter attempted to rise to get up but the Professor put up his hand. "Stay where you are Mr. Hill. I take it you were injured trying to save my daughter?"

"Yes, Sir," Walter replied, "I was."

Professor Potter nodded and went to check first on his other daughter, Abby. "Hello sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

"I hurt, Daddy but thanks to Emily's boyfriend I'm no longer bleeding out." She replied.

He nodded and bent down to check her bandages, which of course was Walter's shirt. "This is soaked through. I am going to have to change this before we can head back home."

She nodded and grimaced as he pulled off the old bandage and put on a new one. "I see it's almost healed. There wasn't any poison on the monster's claws, was there?"

Abby frowned, "I don't know. I didn't recognize the species. I just had to stop it from hurting Emily's boyfriend."

Professor Potter frowned, "I thought you were rescuing Emily?"

Abby shook her head, "No, Emily's boyfriend did that already. He had tackled the demon before I could get to it."

Professor Potter was now examining him with extra scrutiny. "You saved her Mr. Hill?"

Walter nodded, though it hurt to nod, "Yes sir. I heard her scream and I ran as quick as I could to stop the monster from taking her away."

"That was a very brave and foolish thing to do." Walter had the decency to blush and to protest. But before he could get his protest out, Professor Potter laughed "And I would be a hypocrite to criticize a fifteen year old boy from being brave and foolish. But you see Emily is very well protected: there is always someone close by keeping an eye on her or her sister."

"Not all the time, sir. At the Castle there were several times when she was alone." Walter protested, not liking the fact that he might never have a moment alone with his girl. His girl, where did that thought come from? Ten minutes ago he was dumping her and now he was claiming her. He mentally shrugged; she was his girl until she was not. Right now she was his girl and it didn't seem right to not be alone with her. He mentioned that to her father.

Professor Potter raised an eyebrow, "You're fifteen, and she's fifteen. Why would I allow you to have any alone time with her at all?"

Emily took umbrage with this and admonished her father with a sharp "Daddy!"

Professor Potter sighed, "Right, like I can control you lot. Alright let's take a look at you injuries, Mr. Hill." He waved his wand over Walter's body. "Looks like you've cracked a couple of ribs and might have a slight concussion. Everybody grab hold of this shoe and we'll portkey back to the house." The three teens grabbed hold of the shoe and suddenly Walter felt a tug at his navel and the beach disappeared, to be replaced by the Potter house. He fell in a pile on top of Emily's sister, who cried out in pain as he landed on her wound.

"Sorry." He mumbled out, in pain himself as Emily landed on his ribs. Soon Mr. Potter joined them by apparating back into the house. He quickly headed up the stairs and soon returned with a potion for Walter to take for his ribs, a potion for Emily for her frayed nerves and a hand for Abby to help the girl to her feet. He then left them to their own devices. Walter's curiosity was brimming over at this point. "What the devil was that all about?"

Abby looked at Emily and said, "He's your boyfriend. You explain it. You've got about 5 minutes before Mum, your twin and our baby sister comes rushing in here."

Emily gave her sister a pout, then seeing as it had no effect on her, turned to Walter to explain. "You see, Abby is a Slayer. You do remember what a Slayer is, don't you?"

Walter glared at her, "Of course I do. I just didn't realize that your sister was one. But what about that bit about your mother and why was that monster after you?"

Emily looked over at her sister who seemed to shrug. Emily sighed, "Mum is the Queen of the Slayers. My blood is like an aphrodisiac to demons everywhere. I don't really know why, Mum has never really explained it all to me and my sister. I just know that it is and that's why I'm not allowed to out alone. Of course, being the daughter of Harry Potter also puts me in danger from those people who wish to harm him through his family. There, I've said it. I am a freak of nature that's a demon magnet. Do you still want to go out with me?"

Walter considered it for a minute then replied, "I'm willing to a chance if you are. We'll just take it slow and see how it goes."

That brought a real smile from Emily as she leaned over and hugged him. "Ow, watch the ribs there."

"Sorry." Emily replied.

Their romance lasted the summer and the next two. Walter wasn't sure where she would pop up but she always did. The times together were fantastic, though Walter was always looking over his shoulder to see who was shadowing him. It was never the same girl twice, which made Walter wonder just how many slayers were there. He had learned that it was always just one girl but perhaps his information was wrong. He would have to tell Professor Potter so he could correct his information yet if Professor Potter was married to the Queen of the Slayers and his daughter was one than Walter suspected that the Professor already knew. As great as their time together was, it was their differences that eventually drove them apart. Walter was sports fanatic. He loved to play it and loved to watch it. Miss Emily seemed to only take an interest when he or her sister was playing otherwise she seemed distracted. Walter loved rock and roll and didn't understand or want to understand jazz and classical music. That seemed to be the tipping point in their relationship as Emily played piano in the classical style and absolutely loved jazz but had no love of rock music. He missed two of her recitals in his last year at Hogwarts and it caused a big row. Through it all, there was the underlying sense of danger that was present on all their dates that Walter could never really get used to. They parted soon after their last row, promised to remain friends. But the last time Walter saw Emily was during a rainstorm right after they left Hogwarts. She ran up to him, kissed him and then ran off with her sister, laughing into the night, away from him, leaving him alone in the rain with the memory of that last kiss and their time together.


End file.
